Several personal and social factors thought to influence college students' smoking were investigated by surveying a sample of college students who smoke (n=56) and do not smoke (n=160). Personal motivating factors examined were relaxation effects, image effects, competence effects, and stimulant effects. These personal reasons for smoking were indirectly assessed by measuring subjective feeling states that accompany smoking behavior. It was assumed that many of these states were desirable and that they played a role in shaping the smoker's motivation to use tobacco. The social factors investigated in this study were family income and parental smoking status. Results show that relaxation effects were rated more highly than image effects; image effects were higher than competence effects; and competence effects were higher than ratings of stimulant effects. Smokers reported almost never feeling intelligent while smoking, yet reported that they quite frequently felt adequate during the process. No gender differences were found. Correlation was found between family income and student smoking status. In high-income families, 61.5% of fathers and 81.5% of mothers were nonsmokers, meaning that twice as many fathers as mothers were smokers. In low-income families, comparable numbers of mothers and fathers smoked; 66.7% of the fathers and 71.4% of the mothers were nonsmokers. (Contains 6 tables and 47 references.) (MKA)